By Britt Schramm
September 20, 2004
Man, it’s getting tough to be a comic book fan nowadays. In case you haven’t heard (and if you read our sister site, Newsarama, and still don’t know, shame on you), the current monthly titles of GREEN LANTERN, AVENGERS and CAPTAIN AMERICA will all be rebooted in the next couple of months.
Add the whole recent “X-Men: Reload” situation and you have more than seven pre-existing books that will be given an “all new and different” direction. So, what does that mean to you, all of the dear readers of these books? Well, here’s my new announcer Johnny to tell you more...
Announcer: That’s right, Britt. Just say goodbye to those tired old storylines that took years to tell. Turn in that old convoluted continuity that held those books down like so many leaden chains. And say hello fresh new ideas created by the hottest and best writers and artists from the Wizard Top Ten.
Britt: Wow that sounds like a great deal that’s hard to pass up. What else do they get?
Announcer: For some of you, brand new #1s but for all, an increase in monthly sales for a few months.
Britt: Sounds like a win-win situation for almost everybody. Well, except for the readers (with the noted exceptions of the members of H.E.A.T. who haven’t stopped sobbing uncontrollably with joy since they heard the news of Hal’s Rebirth. They sound eerily similar to those “Renovate My Family” contestants. They’re just not as pretty.)
Most of the time, I can’t stand these high profile reboots. Not that I’m a cranky old man (although my driver’s license tells me otherwise), but these things weren’t done back in the day. If there was a change in personnel on the book, the book would continue on with its proper numbering system and a change in the credits would be noted.
Now, it seems like if there’s a slightest change in the book’s direction, the book’s odometer gets pushed back and a press release is issued saying that there’s gonna be a new #1 coming out and the new creative team will revolutionize the character like no one’s business. That is until the first couple of sales charts come out with a progressive decrease in issues sold. Then the editorial staff is looking out for the next “hot” team to take over. Thus, the cycle continues.
And it’s not like I hate the fact that the company wants to hype the new direction by drawing attention to the change. Sometimes, shaking up a book that has grown stagnate can do wonders (i.e. Flash) not only for sales but for the quality of the work. But does it always justify a new #1? I don’t think so, bud.
A great example of books that performed these types of direction changes would be “Batman”. Prior to the “Hush” storyline, the Batman comic book was mired in mediocrity (I apologize for the cliché; I’ll try to refrain from using them in the future) after wrapping up from the whole Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive crossover. The creative team of Ed Brubaker and Scott McDaniel, while great in their own rights, weren’t really hitting on all cylinders (Damn, did it again - Stupid clichés) and were putting out only serviceable work. By that, I mean they were OK reads but nothing extraordinary.
Then, Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee walked in and it was decided that they’re going to do a story arc for BATMAN. Rather than saying that DC is gonna restart the series with a new BATMAN #1 (and basically putting all of the staff’s lives in their hands due to the pending consumer backlash), they just hyped the new team and did a great marketing job. It didn’t hurt that the art was very choice and the story was great.
A bad example of a book changing directions would be all of the X-MEN titles. The direction in each of those titles has changed so many times that the X-offices should hire a political spin doctor just to keep their head straight.
I mean, how many different writers have tried to right the X-Men ship? Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Chris Claremont, Chuck Austen, Scott Lobdell, Joe Casey. And that’s not even mentioning all of the regular and fill-in artists (it’s actually part of the standard X-title contract that at least one-third of all issues have to be done by fill-in artists) that have contributed. What’s worse, that’s only from the year 2000 to the present. That’s can’t be too good for any X-fan.
But it looks like there’s a glimmer of hope with the current “astonishing” run by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. Maybe, good fortune is headed toward the X-titles. Then again, X-FORCE went back to the future with Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld as well as UNCANNY with Claremont. For me, I’ll just stick with ASTONISHING and leave it at that. Let’s move on.
Want another reason why I hate reboots? It brings out the lowest form of being known to modern man (and no, I’m not talking about lawyers). I’m talking about those damn Speculators.
If there are new #1s involved with the reboot, it’s like the books become bloody chum for those feeding frenzied freaks. These skells (and I use that description as a term of affection) scurry around to different stores in their area and pick up a gazillion copies of the high-profile #1 so they can go home, put a couple away in an air-tight vault so they can pay for their kids’ education when they grow up and sell the rest on eBay. I tell ya, they’re like leeches but without the personality.
Of course, based on those inflated numbers, how can a store owner properly assess the selling strength of a new comic? Plus, isn’t this the same path that we all went down in the early ‘90s? Hello, does this scenario sound familiar to anybody out there? Will I be able to write another sentence that’s not a question?
And if there’s a variant cover or an extremely limited chase variant cover associated with a #1 (Hello, ASTONISHING X-MEN), as the Jersey boys would say, “Fuhgettaboutit!” You’d think that those “collectors” have the insane idea that they’re not doing anything wrong other than being opportunists. Yeah, and Martha Stewart knew exactly when the right time to dump her stock was.
*Warning* - A Britt Tangent Approaching - What I don’t understand is that no one benefits from the use of these variants except for the speculators. First of all, the true fans who want to have every issue gets totally ripped off trying to find these limited covers (usually on eBay) and then paying the astronomical prices that are being paid for them (example – right now, a Dealer-Incentive ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 is up to $36 and that’s for a non-slabbed version!). The comic book store owners could try to profit off of these books by marking them up to the market price. But doing so would probably come at the expense of a more valuable source of income, their regular customers. The publishing company gains some heat from the demand for these variants but loses on any secondary market income from them since the printers send all of the books directly to Diamond for distribution. If I was a comic company, I would stop any business plan that would allow opportunists to generate higher revenue off of my books than myself. Why this practice is still in place, I’ll never know.
|
An additional reason for my hatred of these reboots is that sometimes, it becomes an actual part of the book’s identity. Now, I’m sure you’re saying, "How can that be possible?" Well, let me use a funny passage to get this point across.
Every time one of my friends or I mention an ongoing series restarting, we starting bringing up the Legion of Super-Heroes as a running joke. Ya see, back before Crisis on Infinite Earths came out, the Legion had a pretty tight continuity and a loyal fan following. But, have you seen the book lately? It always seems like the book is in a constant state of reboot. The joke usually goes around that once the next Legion book hits #100, it will be rebooted again just because DC feels that a reboot hasn’t been done for so long. It’s pretty sad that any comic book would almost be synonymous with rebooting. Actually, it’s kinda funny when you think of it.
My point in bringing up all of this rebooting nonsense is that the idea of a high profile reboot of a book just for a few months of sales is pretty crappy for us readers. Face, we love these things like they were a close family member (or at very least, a beloved pet). To see the publishing company acting like Bishop Don Magic Juan by treating these books like one of their hos is very disturbing. I just wish that the comic companies would just consider the feelings of the fans into account when they decide to reboot a book. Just watch out for those H.E.A.T. people; from what I hear, they can get pretty emotional.
Sorry for those few who read this far down in my column but there will be no Uncensored Reactions to this week’s Upcoming Books this week as my store didn’t receive their First Look shipment in time. Any complains can be directed to Diamond Distributors.
That’s it for now. See ya next week. (That’s right: PftL will be back for more fun from the 4-Color world next Monday.) Until then, keep your bags and boards together and your continuity straight.
Send column-specific e-mail using the link below. You can also find me reviewing Trades and Graphic Novels at 4-Color Review.
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
